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“Few directors can make a movie as well as Mr. Allen.” – Grady Hendrix, The New York Sun “America’s most authentic, most serious, most consistent film auteur.” – Vincent Canby, NY Times | ||
| Read The Reeler on Essentially Woody David Rakoff blogs about Essentially Woody |
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DECEMBER 22/23 FRI/SAT 
(1977) “If life were only like this.” Abie’s Irish Rose for the 70s, as Woody Allen’s Alvy Singer loves and loses Diane Keaton over the years between screenings of The Sorrow and the Pity, with a meet-cute helpfully subtitled with real meanings and media visionary Marshall McLuhan popping up to silence an arthouse pontificator. Oscars for Picture, Actress, Director, and Screenplay (by Allen & Marshall Brickman). “An aggressively experimental fantasia in which he unleashed all the kung fu in his cinematic arsenal, Annie Hall leaves any other romantic comedy made since choking on its dust.” DECEMBER 24/25 SUN/MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) (1972, HERBERT ROSS) Woody’s dumped film fanatic Allan Felix retests the dating waters, encouraged by best friends Tony Roberts and Diane Keaton — but what if it’s Keaton he really loves? Luckily, Woody can conjure up the spirit of Humphrey Bogart for advice. Adapted by Allen from his own Broadway play. “Shows Allen at his best.” – Stephen Gilbert, TimeOut (London) THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO (1985) “I met a wonderful new man. He’s fictional, but you can’t have everything.” During the Depression, miserably married waitress Mia Farrow finds relief only at the movies, where pith-helmeted adventurer Jeff Daniels pops off the screen into her life. But what happens to the movie after he leaves? Add hubby Danny Aiello’s jealousy, arrival of the real-life star of the picture (Daniels again), and arguably Allen’s most poignant conclusion. “A crypto remake of Federico Fellini’s charming White Sheik, Allen’s special-effects comedy about an impressionable woman who falls in love with a movie-star (who leaves the screen) is accomplished and charming!” DECEMBER 26 TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY (1993) After sending their son off to college, Woody and Diane Keaton, utterly convincing as Old Married Couple, avoid emptynest syndrome by getting embroiled in a Hitchcockian murder mystery. “Extremely funny! A fast, ramshackle thrill comedy…almost defiantly upbeat.” – Geoff Andrew, TimeOut (London)
MIGHTY APHRODITE (1995) Adoption solves few problems for battling spouses Woody Allen and Helena Bonham-Carter, but gives Woody a mission: find the birth mother. What?! She’s an air-headed porn star and hooker? Time for Redemption, with running commentary from an actual Greek chorus led by F. Murray Abraham and tour de farce performance by Oscar-winning Mira Sorvino. “Mira Sorvino’s sweet, dopey porn star proves that Allen has never been better at directing women.” – TimeOut (New York) “A zippy, frothy confection.” – Variety DECEMBER 27 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) LOVE AND DEATH (1975) “You are a great lover.” “Well, I practice a lot when I’m alone.” As Napoleon invades Russia in 1812, it’s a tough time for a “militant coward,” Woody’s Boris Grushenko, especially when his beloved Diane Keaton’s obsessions are metaphysical discussions, assassinating the Emperor and sleeping with other men. With death cell dialogue derived solely from the titles of Russian classics and a deadly parody of The Seventh Seal. “Allen’s grandest work. It’s Woody’s homage to Tolstoy, Kierkegaard, Eisenstein, Groucho Marx, Bob Hope and maybe even Robert Z. Leonard. It looks terrific. Besides being one of Woody’s most consistently witty films, marks a couple of other advances for Mr. Allen as a film maker and for Miss Keaton as a wickedly funny comedienne.”
EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX (BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK) (1972) “I’m an NYU graduate.” “We’re in!” The sketches come fast and furious in this rare comedy based on a bestselling sex manual: medieval jester Woody struggles with Queen Lynn Redgrave’s chastity belt; Gene Wilder falls for a sheep; Louise Lasser lusts for public intercourse, played in Italian with titles; “What’s My Perversion?,” the latest TV panel game; sex doctor Woody tries to corral a giant escaped breast; and Woody as a sperm cell while a seduction nears its climax. [On segment ‘What happens during ejaculation?] “Allen achieves his finest hour.” DECEMBER 28 THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) (1994) Struggling 1929 playwright John Cusack gets the good news — his show’s got backing; only trouble is, his backer is a mobster who demands a big part for bimbo girlfriend Jennifer Tilly. Better news: her menacing bodyguard Chazz Palminteri proves to be a top play doctor. With Dianne Wiest Oscaring as a diva constantly imploring “Don’t speak.” “Feels like a Damon Runyon short story in all the best ways.” “A bright, energetic, sometimes side-splitting comedy with vital matters on its mind.” – Janet Maslin, NY Times
EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU (1996) “It’s like Noel Coward... with hockey!” Dumped-again- Woody is comforted by ex-wife Goldie Hawn and her hubby Alan Alda — but then he sees Julia Roberts — while their daughter Drew Barrymore is distracted from boyfriend Edward Norton by ex-con Tim Roth — and everyone bursts into song. Yes, it’s a musical, with an Allen-Hawn dance along the Seine a magical highlight. “The shock is that it works so well...a delightful and witty compendium of the film maker’s favorite things and a particularly sunny example of the protean Allen wizardry. The film, like its characters, is always ready for stylish urbanity and movie magic.” DECEMBER 29/30 FRI/SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) (1984) “I need a valium the size of a hockey puck.” Comics gather at the Carnegie Deli to tell the story of Woody’s Danny Rose, king of the cheap-act agents (he serves turkey TV dinners for Thanksgiving), and his encounter with nightclub singer and Joisey moll Mia Farrow. “Fantastic… while Allen’s direction invests enough care, wit and warmth to make it genuinely moving.”
(1987) Growing up in Far Rockaway in the 40s, when radio was king, with Seth Green as an obvious alter ego to young Woody, parented by Michael Tucker and Julie Kavner (later the voice of Marge Simpson), plus aunt Dianne Wiest; and vignettes of backstage in broadcasting, with short and bald Wallace Shawn revealed as The Masked Avenger. “So ambitious and so audacious that it almost defies description. It’s a kaleidoscope of dozens of characters, settings and scenes - the most elaborate production Allen has ever made - and it’s inexhaustible, spinning out one delight after another.” DECEMBER 31/JANUARY 1 SUN/MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) (1973) Waking up in 2173, Woody’s Miles Monroe finds out his rent is “2,000 months overdue” and he’s the only person alive without an identification number in what’s now a police state — and soon he’s on the run with rebel Diane Keaton. “You laugh all the way through and come out smiling and happy.” BANANAS (1971) “This trial is a travesty. It’s a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham.” Woody’s Fielding Mellish becomes a banana republic’s first Jewish president when the former jefe demands fresh underwear (worn outside) on the half-hour. With sportscasting legend Howard Cosell play-by-playing an assassination and a marriage consummation. "Hilarious." – Leonard Maltin "Any movie that attempts to mix together love, Cuban revolution, the C.I.A., Jewish mothers, J. Edgar Hoover and a few other odds and ends (including a sequence in which someone orders 1,000 grilled cheese sandwiches) is bound to be a little weird—and most welcome." JANUARY 2 TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) (1999) “The greatest guitar player in the world! Except for that gypsy guy in France.” And Sean Penn’s 30s virtuoso Emmet Ray can’t ever forget it. But offstage he sticks to drinking, shooting rats, and watching the trains go by, until he must choose between mute Samantha Morton and rich bitch Uma Thurman. Mockumentary — jazz critic Nat Hentoff commenting on the fictional Ray — as well as La Strada homage. “This is one very tuneful labor of love.” – Janet Maslin, NY Times
WILD MAN BLUES (1998, BARBARA KOPPLE) On his New Orleans jazz band’s ‘96 tour of Europe, Woody frets audiences have come for him and not for the music, battles a recalcitrant clarinet, and introduces the “notorious Soon-Yi Previn.” And on his return, his 90-something parents lament that he could have been a phamarcist. From the two-time documentary Oscar-winning director of Harlan County, U.S.A. “In her unexpectedly delightful documentary, Kopple demonstrates cinéma vérité at its most delightful...In exuberant, unguarded moments Allen comes alive” “Barbara Kopple touchingly reveals the inextricable unity of the man and his movie persona—and suggests the psychic conflicts at the heart of his great films.” "A must for Woodyphiles." – Leonard Maltin JANUARY 3 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) (1986) “I had a great evening. It was like the Nuremberg Trials.” Bracketed by family Thanksgiving dinners, two years in the lives of three New York sisters: Mia Farrow’s husband Michael Caine, yearning for sister-in-law Barbara Hershey, who lives with misanthropic artist Max von Sydow; insecure Dianne Wiest battling a coke habit; and Farrow’s ex-husband Woody Allen, so hypochondriacal he contemplates white bread and Christianity as last resorts. Three Oscars (Caine, Wiest and the screenplay) among 7 nominations. “Stuffed to overflowing with great actors it Exudes a ragtag charm that hadn’t been seen since Annie Hall. It doesn’t hurt that it’s probably the only really good Thanksgiving movie in the history of cinema.” – Grady Hendrix, The New York Sun “The best movie Woody Allen has ever made.” – Roger Ebert (1992) “You couldn’t survive off the island of Manhattan for more than 48 hours.” Woody and Mia are aghast when friends Sydney Pollack and Judy Davis break up, then question their own relationship. Major stylistic experiment, with handheld camerawork, jump cuts, and characters addressing an unseen interviewer. Davis took virtually every award except the Oscar. “So vividly drawn are all the characters that one becomes wholly caught up in their tangled whirl of emotional/psychological confusion...the film is engrossing from start to finish.” JANUARY 4 THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S SEX COMEDY “Allen’s best invention remains his own screen persona, and the Bergman borrowings here provide it with a warm, romantic and old-fashioned setting.” ANOTHER WOMAN (1988) Philosophy professor Gena Rowlands (“arguably Allen’s most complex female character” – Time Out) rents an apartment to hole up in while writing a book, then finds she can hear every word of a psychiatrist’s sessions through the vents — which begins her own voyage of self-discovery. With Mia Farrow, Ian Holm, Gene Hackman, and, in his last appearance, John Houseman. “Arguably Allen’s most complex female character to date... Rowlands’ perfectly pitched approach to a demanding role is particularly stunning.” JANUARY 5/6 FRI/SAT (1979) “I think people should mate for life, like pigeons or Catholics.” Dumped by wife Meryl Streep for another woman, Woody now dates high-schooler Mariel Hemingway — but pal Michael Murphy’s mistress Diane Keaton sure looks good. Super-complicated relationships backed by Gershwin and shot in ravishing b&w Scope by the legendary Gordon Willis. “This stunningly beautiful erotic roundelay, immeasurably enhanced by Gordon Willis’s marvelous cinematography, remains the Woodman’s supreme masterpiece.” JANUARY 7/8 SUN/MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN (1969) “After fifteen minutes, I wanted to marry her, and after half an hour, I completely gave up the idea of stealing her purse.” Hard-hitting documentary that tells the truth of the notorious career of the vicious Virgil Starkwell, complete with voiceover narration, interviews with family, friends —wait a minute, he’s played by Woody Allen! So ineffectual — he took up crime to pay for cello lessons — bank clerks argue with him over the spelling of his holdup note. Allen’s first “real” directing credit. “A very funny movie, the cinematic equivalent to one of Allen’s best nightclub monologues. Allen has made a movie that is, in effect, a feature-length, two-reel comedy—something very special and eccentric and funny.” WHAT’S UP, TIGER LILY? (1966) “Name three presidents,” coos the beautiful woman, clad only in a towel, to the intrepid secret agent — what’s going on here? Woody’s redubbing of the Japanese Bond spoof International Secret Police: Key of Keys, starring Tatsuya Mihashi (of Kurosawa’s The Bad Sleep Well and High and Low), here renamed Phil Moscowitz and on the trail of a secret recipe for “an egg salad so good it’ll make you plotz.” “A jolly oddity.” – Andrew Nickolds, TimeOut (London) JANUARY 9 TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) STARDUST MEMORIES (1980) At a film appreciation weekend, fans, groupies, and autograph hounds engulf honoree Sandy Bates (Woody), while he’s dealing with his producers’ demands for more jokes in his movies and memories of the women in his life: Charlotte Rampling, Jessica Harper, Marie-Christine Barrault. Homage to Fellini’s 8 1/2, in both b&w style and subject matter. “Visually stunning!” – Grady Hendrix, The New York Sun INTERIORS (1978) As daughters Mary Beth Hurt, Diane Keaton and Kristen Griffith try to handle things in their separate ways, superaesthete/ control freak mom Geraldine Page goes to pieces when dad E.G. Marshall demands a separation. And then Marshall finds someone very different. Allen’s first “serious” picture and first without him as actor. “One of the most spectacular changes of direction for an American artist...A beautifully acted, lyrically written exploration.” JANUARY 10 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) ZELIG (1983) “We broke over the concept of penis envy. Freud felt it should be limited to women.” Woody’s Leonard Zelig, the Human Chameleon, gets to meet just about every notable of the 20s and 30s — Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Al Capone, Hitler, you name it — and to look like them as well. But can his manic urge to fit in be cured by shrink Mia Farrow? Tour de force mockumentary, with incredible pre-CGI melding of old and new footage. “An astonishing technical achievement!” “Zelig is a Woody Allen masterpiece... It’s a summation and a perfection of methods and ideas that have been turning up in all his films.” THE FRONT (1976, MARTIN RITT) At the height of McCarthyism in the 50s, nebbish restaurant cashier Woody Allen signs his name to blacklisted pal Michael Murphy’s scripts to get them on the air. But then The Committee calls. With actual blacklistees (Ritt, Zero Mostel, Herschel Bernardi, et al.) behind and before the camera. “A moving, haunted film about the panic that swept this country during the late 1940’s and early 50’s...[Woody] carries the familiar Allen character into another context of experience, which endows the character with unexpected and real humanity.” JANUARY 11 THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) (1989) “Comedy is tragedy plus time!” intones sitcom maven Alan Alda as his brother-in-law, documentarian Woody Allen, curls his lip. Meanwhile, respected doctor Martin Landau is receiving restless mistress trouble from Anjelica Huston. Do beautiful women end up with the right men? Will a man not just get away with murder, but avoid guilt as well? “Deeper and more mysterious than any previous Allen excursion...
This is a smart, absorbing movie, with startling intimations of greatness.” DECONSTRUCTING HARRY (1997) “Nihilism! Cynicism! Sarcasm! Orgasm!” Six shrinks and three wives down the line, blocked novelist Woody — who takes “everyone’s suffering and turns it into gold” — must contend with constant jump cuts, out-of-focus individuals, and his own characters, real and imagined, coming back to haunt him. “Allen’s bawdiest film... | ||
 Time Out New York is the exclusive media sponsor for Essentially Woody. Special thanks to Ross Klein (MGM); Michael Schlesinger | ||
ANNIE HALL 
PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM
BULLETS OVER BROADWAY
BROADWAY DANNY ROSE
SWEET AND LOWDOWN
HANNAH AND HER SISTERS
(1982) A summer house party in upstate New York, with stockbroker/ inventor Woody hosting scientist José Ferrer and doctor Tony Roberts, each with a wonderful, compatible woman: Mary Steenburgen, Mia Farrow, Julie Hagerty. Are they content? Fuhgettabout it! Sweet, whimsical homage to Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night. 
MANHATTAN
CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS